ENGRAVING. 
landscape; and portraits ; the latter of which are in ge- Engraving. 
‘Fagraving- as most of his other works, is hard, and like marble, 
F 
school. 
Le Bas. 
David. 
but it is to be regretted ‘that these qualities, 
from the excessive clearness of his lines. 
» The lan , cattle pieces, and drolls of the Fle- 
mish and Dutch schools, have been rendered with much 
fidelity and spirit by Le Bas. - He availed himself much 
of the freedom and facility of ing, which he har- 
monized in an admirable manner with the dry point 
and the graver. He executed upwards of an hundred 
plates after Teniers, besides numerous engravings from 
Ostade, Wovermans, du Jardin, Berghem, and onsets of 
that school. 
From the brilliant era of the age of Louis XIV. to 
the present time, the French school has distinguished 
itself for all the mechanical excellencies of the graver ; 
the 
time of Edelinck and the Audrans till within these 
few years, have seldom been displayed on subjects of 
legitimate historical composition, but have in general 
been confined to the representation of the most absurd 
and ridiculous frivolities. The genius of David, and a 
concurrence of other circumstances, have revived the 
study of the antique, and effected a total revolution in 
folly and affectation, they have gone to the other, that 
of cold insipidity. Their historical subjects now, in 
aiming at the chaste and rigid style of the antique, pre- 
Swe en eet oe mh hinpe re lea af e, ener- 
gy; or action. this sort are all the works of the pre- 
sent French pS aN mt ing all the beauties 
of mechanical skill, in whi have so long excelled, 
The Flemish and Dutch ools now demand our 
consideration ; and as the styles of them both differ 
not ially from each other, we shall include them 
both under the same head. 
cas Van Leyden, must be ed as the patriarch of the 
Dutchschool. He was ten ierirg ed so contempo-« 
rary with Albert Durer, There existed between them 
ial fri ip. aetidberat tron hr 
passed Albert in composition, though inferior to him 
i His drawing of the fi is stifly taken 
n without grace or elegance in the style, 
at that time prevalent in his country. His ex- 
on is neat and clear; but as his stroke is equally 
n the aes as in bo distances, and as 
‘is a-wan connection in the masses, his q 
of connection nthe mates, his plats 
effect, to those of Albert Durer. He engraved 
well as , but his cuts are not nume- 
are spirited and masterly. 
After the death of Lucas Van Leyden, the art seem- 
2 ah pg for many years, as the 
engravers seem to have been princi employed, as 
in Germany, in decorations ‘abode Whe “care te 
‘who flourished about 1580, and who imitated the 
style of Albert Durer, with the exception of correct 
drawing, and much attention to the marking out the 
extremities of their figures, did little towards its ad- 
ancement. 
ny 
had the benefit of the instructions of their uncles. 
Their works are multifarious, consisting of history, 
VOL, IX. PART 1, 
49 
neral very fine, and much esteemed. There were in Flem 
the Low Countries at this time many other artists, whose 344 D a 
works display great talent; the elder and younger Peter schools. 
de Jode, Philip, Theodore, and Cornelius Galle the el- 
der, who all drew correctly ; but as with them engra- 
ving was more an article of commerce than an art 
which was to be cultivated and improved for its own 
sake, it received little advantage from their exertions. 
Cornelius Bloemart introduced a new style, which was Bloemart. 
the source from which the great engravers of the French 
school derived the principles of giving so mach colour 
and harmony to their works. He tinted the lights on 
his distances, and other parts of his plates, with great 
care, which, till his time, had been uniformly left en 
tirely untouched. By this improvement, he laid the 
foundation of those principles of colour and chiar’ oscu- 
ro, which form se essential a requisite to breadth and 
unity of effect, and have in later times been practised 
with so much success. The art received another im- 
portant improvement from Henry Goltzius, who, on his Goltzius. 
return from studying at Rome, despising the neatness 
and stiff dry manner of the little masters, introdu< 
ced the bold, free, and clear style of cutting, which dis- 
tinguish his works. He possessed a most profound 
knowledge of the figure, and drew correctly; but, in 
avoiding the formal style of his countrymen, and endea- 
vouring to imitate the sublimity of Michael Angelo, he, 
as well as Sprangher, fell into the opposite extreme of 
bombastic absurdity and extravagance. However, he 
has never been , and hardly ever equalled in 
the freedom and dexterity of handling the graver. He 
engraved small its with much taste, neatness, and 
good drawing. He also cut, from his own designs, ma- 
ny blocks in chiar’ oscuro, in which he was very suce 
cessful. The outlines are executed with all the free« 
dom and dexterity for which he is so remarkable ; and 
the works which he has produced in this way are truly 
excellent. He was followed by his disciples John Muller 
and Lucas Kilian, who carried his style to A pie 
jitch of extravagance than his preceptor done. 
But it was imitated with more judgment by Mathem 
and Saenredam, whose works diep y more delicacy 
and correctness, 
The brilliancy and splendour of Rubens afforded a 
new object for the imitation of the engraver, for which 
the improvements of Corn. Bloemart and Goltzius had 
prepared the way. About the beginning of the seven- 
teenth century, flourished the pt 
instruction of Rubens, they improved their style. Of 
this school, Paul Pontius, Vosterman, the younger Pe« 
prineipelly i th others, make a 7 i pv 
rinci in their engravings after Ru and Van- 
hycke all drew correctly, and have been very 
successful in rendering the harmony and beauty of the 
originals. But after the death of Rubens, the art of en« 
graving gradually declined, and ceased to produce, in 
the higher d tt of the art, any specimens wor- 
thy But in the departments of land 
scape and animals, and such subjects, in which the 
Dutch and Flemish schools excelled, there are many 
beautiful etchings, executed principally by the painters. 
In consideri is of our subject, we cannot with- 
our attention. 
hold from Rembrandt the pre-emmence to which his Rembrandt. 
works so justly entitle him; they consist of history, 
landscape, and portraits. His drawing of the human 
figure is very bad ; his heads are all of a low and vul« 
G 
Iswerts, whose first The Bols. 
exertions were in the style of Goltzius; but under the Wert &c- 
